The lady in town square

I'd been in Banaue, Philippines looking at rice terraces for a couple of days when I saw this lady slowly walking to the town square.

She was hunched over at the waist which made her only about 2 feet tall as she walked.

In one hand she had a tiny walking stick that she was using for a cane and the other hand a shopping bag.

We watched her make her way down the road and figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if she would talk to us on-camera.

She agreed!

We wanted to locate a more picturesque location than the town square so we called the driver and had him pick us up.

She was a bit worried but she got into the van with us. 

The driver started down the road and she looked like she was going to throw up. 

Through a translator we discovered that was the very first time she had ever been inside a car in her entire life!

Can you imagine?

She survived the ride to the lookout point overlooking some of the rice terraces and we spent the next hour talking with her about her life

She's lived such a different life than I grew up with.

She's never had hot and cold running water in a house, she never took a shower in a showerstall like most americans do everyday.

She never owned a television or telephone either.

She spent her life planting rice, raising children and out-living a husband.  

She was in the Banaue region during the Japanese occupation during World War Two and she recounted a couple stories about that.

She's a living history relic from a different time.  

I love people like her.  They remind me how blessed I am and yet how much I may have missed out on in life.  

Meeting her was an eye opener for sure!  

She invited us to her house for dinner but we weren't able to make it.  

One thing I do remember about her.  We asked her if she was happy and what the happiest moment in her life was.  

She replied like many other woman have since I started asking that question.

"The day my husband died was the happiest day of my life" she said.

I'm not sure even to this day if she was serious or not but we did ask her questions about her response.

She said, '"Now I don't have to cook, clean, carry water, make his bed, etc.  I"m a free woman now"

That reply made me think about how we all take care of the people we love.  

Are we a blessing or a burden on the people we love?  

If we're a blessing, how can we continue to bless them?

If we're a burden, how can we change that?

Something to think about today reallly.